Why are Scandinavians so happy?
Transcript of Why are Scandinavians so happy?
College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University
DigitalCommons@CSB/SJU DigitalCommons@CSB/SJU
Forum Lectures Forum
4-10-2014
Why are Scandinavians so happy? Why are Scandinavians so happy?
John Hasselberg College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University, [email protected]
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http://www1.eur.nl/fsw/happiness//index.html
“Happiness,” the term that Aristotle uses to designate the highest human
good, is the usual translation of the Greek eudaimonia. Although it is
impossible to abandon the English term at this stage of history, it should be
borne in mind that what Aristotle means by eudaimonia is something more like
well-being or flourishing than any feeling of contentment. Aristotle argues, in
fact, that happiness is activity of the rational soul in accordance with virtue….
There are two kinds of virtue: moral and intellectual. Moral virtues are
exemplified by courage, temperance, and liberality; the key intellectual virtues
are wisdom, which governs ethical behaviour, and understanding, which is
expressed in scientific endeavour and contemplation.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE
HAPPY?
http://www.grossnationalhappiness.com/
GROSS NATIONAL HAPPINESS
THE POSITIVE CYCLE OF
GROSS NATIONAL HAPPINESS
3) Harmonious
relationships between
social, economic and
environmental
constituencies.
1) Buddhist cultural
values of self-control
and moral
consideration of other
constituencies (all
sentient beings)
2) Good’ governance
and the formation of
considerate social,
economic and
environmental
policies
THE NEGATIVE CYCLE OF GROSS
NATIONAL UNHAPPINESS
3) Conflict-based
relationships between
social, economic and
environmental
constituencies
1) Western cultural
values of self-indulgence
and inconsideration of
other constituencies
2) ‘Bad’ governance and
the formation of
inconsiderate social,
economic and
environmental policies
The state should be a home for its people.
The foundations of this home are togetherness and fellow feeling.
The good home does not have privileged and underprivileged,
favorites and stepchildren.
In it, no one looks down upon another;
in it, no one tries to gain advantage at the cost of another;
and in it, the strong to not trample and plunder the weak.
In the good home, equality, consideration, cooperation and helpfulness prevail.
—Per Albin Hansson, 1928
FOLKHEMMET
http://www.rferl.org/content/scandinavia_meaning_of_prosperity_index/24267365.html
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/09/business/earth-institute-world-happiness-rankings/
http://unsdsn.org/resources/publications/world-happiness-report-2013/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6563639.stm?lsm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satisfaction_with_Life_Index
http://www.prosperity.com/#!/?aspxerrorpath=%2Fcountries.aspx
http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21570840-nordic-countries-are-reinventing-their-model-capitalism-says-adrian
http://www.nytimes.com/video/technology/100000002599795/europes-start-up-superstar.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20131219
http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/yk98ct/the-stockholm-syndrome-pt--1
WORLD’S HAPPIEST NATIONS ARE…..
ON THE LEVEL/DIG DEEPER
1—The organization’s Relationship to its Environment
2—The Nature of Reality and Truth
3—The Nature of Human Nature
4—the Nature of Human Activity
5—The Nature of Human Relationships
A>>P>>F>>B
TWIN PEAKS
Buddha once said to the world, ‘You are not the victims of an external law but of an internal cause.’ This ancient principle certainly appears valid today. A hostile person living in utopia is still a hostile person and will even destroy it—unless it can change him or her first. The big challenge, therefore, is for us to integrate the Western and Eastern conceptions of self-actualization and inner peace. The good world helps to permit the good person to be good. It also helps to create good children who are more likely to become good adults.
A third assumption of self-actualization theory is that it very strongly requires a pluralism of individual differences. This requires that we accept hereditary, constitutional, and temperamental differences—and do so in a joyful rather than grudging way. Such true acceptance of individual differences has several key implications that should be stated briefly. Among these notions is the ‘horticulture’ rather than the ‘sculpture’ model of personality growth….[It] implies a kind of Taoism, an acceptance of what people really are; it necessitates a pleasure in the self-actualization of a person who may be quite different from yourself. It even implies an ultimate respect and acknowledgment of the sacredness and uniqueness of each kind of person….We have to enable people to become healthy in their own style….[T]he model of self-actualization so far seems not only cross-cultural but even cross-historical as well. In cultures as diverse as the Japanese and Blackfoot Native American, I have found significant similarities in how the saint or sage is depicted.
MASLOW
Lagom, like the Tao, invokes a cultural preference for moving towards harmony and expressing this balanced way. ‘Lagom is a Swedish word with no direct English equivalent; just right; enough; sufficient, adequate; fitting, appropriate, suitable ’. But whereas words like sufficientand average suggest some degree of abstinence, scarcity, or failure, lagom carries the connotation of perfection or appropriateness. Lagom är bäst, literally Lagom is best, is translated as ‘Enough is as good as a feast’ by Lexin, the Swedish National Agency for School Improvement. That proverb is also often translated as ‘There is virtue in moderation’ i.e., a middle way of life .
THE TAO OF LAGOM
Of the four experts, Deming, who can be the harshest as a teacher, seems the most humanistic, insisting that it is every person's right to have "joy in work." He used to say "pride" until David Kerridge, a professor at the University of Aberdeen, pointed out that the Book of Ecclesiastes says "joy" in two different verses. Deming, whose one known hobby is writing liturgical masses, switched to joy. He estimates that no more than two in a hundred managers and ten in a hundred workers now have joy in their work.
Lloyd Dobyns, Clare Crawford-Mason, Quality or else: the revolution in world business, Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1991
JOY IN WORK
http://positivesharing.com/2008/05/of-brits-and-danes-
and-happiness-at-work/
SVENSK NÄRINGSLIV
ARBEJDSGLÆDE
Why Scandinavian
women
make the rest of the
world jealous
http://blogs.reuters.com/great-
debate/2013/10/31/why-
scandinavian-women-make-the-rest-
of-the-world-jealous/
In Sweden,
Men Can Have It All
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/
world/europe/10iht-
sweden.html?pagewanted=all
GENDER ENVY
The word "happiness" would lose its meaning
if it were not balanced by sadness.
We deem those happy
who from the experience of life
have learnt to bear its ills
without being overcome by them. —Carl Jung
Their soul happiness was so pure
that when they spoke of their
experiences they did not feel pain;
instead they felt relief and
satisfaction of having the ability to
have learned through their
experiences.
–Elia Medina